4 Billion Year Old, Extremely Valuable Meteorite Used As Doorstop By Tennessee Family

The rock is nothing much to look at: 33 pounds and oval shaped. If you didn't know its history, you probably wouldn't be surprised that Donna
Lewis's family used it as a doorstop, later parking it in the front garden.

It was even painted green for a time.

As it turned out, this was no ordinary rock. On Thursday, Donna and her husband George formally announced that the family rock picked out of a cow
pasture in the 1930 is in fact a meteorite, Fox News reported.

Researchers from the University of Tennessee believe the ancient and very valuable rock came from a known meteorite strike that first turned up
evidence in Tazewell, Tenn. in 1853.

According to Arizona State University's Center for Meteorite Studies, a meteorite is a solid body from outer space that has fallen to the Earth's
surface. The Lewis meteorite is classified as a "find" by the center, since it was not observed falling to earth but rather was recognized after the
fact by its distinct features.

George Lewis first started to suspect his rock might be special after running a metal detector over it in May. To his surprise, the detector's dial
registered "overload," reports the Lexington Herald-Leader.

After confirming the rock's other worldly pedigree, Eastern Kentucky University purchased it, for eventual display in the school's new Science's
building.

In addition to being extremely rare, meteorites of this size are also valuable. In an October auction, cosmic rocks for sale had price tags ranging
from the tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to the Associated Press.

Wonder what they got paid for it??

There's a video that goes with this article but I don't know how to embed it, so if some one would like to, that would be great.

Originally posted by Wrabbit2000
Umm... (catches breath) (cough cough) HOW many POUNDS? Oh my... I am sure they are happy. Thrilled! They hit the power ball even by academic pay
standards! Oh...just once in life!

A friend of mine tells me of a rock that houses more than one full trilobite (something not entirely easy to come by in these parts) being used as a
step to an outhouse (yeah I guess a few people still use those lol).

To use an awesome fossil like that as a step to an outhouse is crazy lol.

Originally posted by iwontrun
at about 1 $ per oz isn't that around $18,000, not quite enough to retire on......unless you retire in maine.

Regular run of the mill Iron meteorites sell for around .25 - $1.00 a gram .. so at $1 a gram = $28 a Oz...$448 Lb... 33Lbs = $14784.. A Nice find.

If this turns out to be a unique find, it is far from "run of the mill". Irons are rather rare, about 3-6% of meteorites are Irons. The value
really depends more on how much material is in possession. If it winds up being cataloged to a known find, it will take that name and the value will
be determined by how much more there is of this fall. If it is unique, then it could be worth way more than $1 a gram. I really wonder what they got
paid for it.

I'd just note...one of those on my link up there was $25/gram. That's $11k per pound...and that was just for the type class being nifty. This is the
second largest..by the story..from a known strike already considered special or unusual somehow.

I'm thinking they got a whole lot more than 5 figures on the check, or they're getting it in other ways if someone is sticky about cash numbers given
the recipient. That's my guess.. Rare and Unusual sells, with this sounding like a jackpot for that.

Cook believes the meteorite to be the second largest (known) meteorite from the Tazewell strike. The first, he said, weighed approximately 100
pounds.

(OP Link)

Sounds like a score to me.

Almost makes ya wanna go rock hunting out in the back country where every stone just sitting in plain view hasn't been
seen and kicked around by a thousand people... Who knows?

I wish they would have explained what in the World convinced this family to inspect the rock to begin with? Just says it was laying in the garden,
painted green after a stint as a doorstop and then bam, 4 billion year old meteor??

I wish they would have explained what in the World convinced this family to inspect the rock to begin with? Just says it was laying in the garden,
painted green after a stint as a doorstop and then bam, 4 billion year old meteor??

Supposedly his metal detector went ballistic when he put it over the rock....

George Lewis first started to suspect his rock might be special after running a metal detector over it in May. To his surprise, the detector's
dial registered "overload," reports the Lexington Herald-Leader.

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